Sensex snaps three-day gains, down 268 points

India’s benchmark stock index fell on Monday, snapping a three-day rally. The fall was led by commodity and banking shares after investors rated recent gains as excessive and economist Nouriel Roubini said global share prices might drop. Indian bourses were, in a way, reacting a bit late as global markets had fallen on Friday, when our markets were closed due to a national holiday.

The Asian markets closed on a mixed note. The Seoul Composite slipped 2.29 per cent and the Straits Times was down 0.8 per cent. The Shanghai Composite advanced 0.9 per cent while the other indices ended on a flat note.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index on Monday opened 73 points lower at 17,062. The index, after exhibiting range-bound movement, slipped deeper into the red to a low of 16,898.11, down 299 points from the previous close, owing to selling in real estate and oil & gas stocks.

The index outperformed the midcap and the smallcap indices, which were down 1.69 per cent and 2.12 per cent, respectively. The Sensex finally settled at 16,866.41, down 268.14 points, or 1.56 per cent. The Nifty slipped below the 5,000 mark during the day but managed to regain the psychological level and closed at 5,003.20, down 80.2 points.

All sectoral indices, barring the FMCG index, ended in the red. The BSE Realty index led the fall. It was down 1.4 per cent. Oil & gas (1.21 per cent), TEC (1.12 per cent) and Bankex (0.93 per cent) were some of the other major losers. The FMCG index was up 1.47 per cent.

The market breadth was extremely negative. Out of 2,833 shares traded, 1,991 declined, 779 advanced and 63 were unchanged on the BSE on Monday.

Among the index movers, ITC advanced 2.58 per cent, followed by Sun Pharmaceuticals (2.29 per cent) and Reliance Infrastructure (1.26 per cent).

Bharti Airtel was the major dragger, down 8.05 per cent at Rs 400.30, after it was cut to “reduce” from “add” at Kotak Securities on concerns about increasing competition and slower growth. Grasim Industries plunged 7.1 per cent.